The Killer of Dolls

After his sister died, Paul (David Rocha) was raised as a girl by his grieving mother, who made her son wear dresses and gave him dolls to play with; now, as a young man, Paul is very disturbed, wearing a doll mask and wig to go out and kill women, who he mistakes for mannequins. When not out murdering, gardener's son Paul is busy trying to avoid the advances of his boss, Condesa Olivia (Helga Liné), while romancing her pretty daughter Audrey (Inma de Santis). Of course, Paul's love for Audrey is doomed since he struggles to tell her apart from the mannequins he despises.

If you're a fan of really odd films, then The Killer of Dolls is a must see: the plot is extremely bizarre, with plenty of random weirdness (my favourite scene: the hippy rock band who appear out of nowhere to perform a groovy song), but it is the central performance by Rocha that makes the film something really special. Rocha's acting technique is truly remarkable, the guy doing nothing the way one might expect: he stands strangely, he runs strangely, he kisses strangely, he showers strangely, he laughs strangely. In short, he's bloody strange, which is great because his character is not exactly normal (his best friend is a little kid in tiny shorts who likes to burn dolls!).

Writer/director Miguel Madrid delivers a few brutal death scenes - a decapitation, a stabbing with scissors, and a sharp garden implement in the face - but the effects are laughably cheap: when Audrey is shown after having had her heart removed, the wound is wholly unconvincing and de Santis is clearly moving.

If I'm totally honest, this is not a good film, but I had such a fun time with the insanely daft nature of the whole thing that I can't bring myself to rate it poorly. 7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for that song, and the hilarious dancing that goes with it.

I'm probably being rather generous here, but I enjoyed the film and found David Rocha's performance so bizarre it was mesmerising. Director Michael Skaife wrote and acted but only directed two other films. Rocha make a reasonable number of films, including a small part in Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire and not much larger part in Naschy's Night of the Werewolf. But back to the surreal film before us and that extraordinary performance by Rocha. Many horror films allude to manikins and dolls by way of introducing something of the uncanny but here there is barely a scene without one or the other or lots and Rocha seems to have been asked to move as if he too were some plastic zombie. Effective and strange and the teaming of him with a young lad who looks more like a young girl just ratchets up the weirdness. There is a back story surrounding his upbringing and the presence of a countess underplayed by Helga Line and of course there is death and destruction. indeed the film starts at a pace it barely lets up as we helter skelter from mangled dolls and manikin heads to the real thing. The music varies from sublime to something you might expect in a TV quiz show but never mind, there is surely enough here to keep the lover of the obscure well happy.

The Killer of Dolls (1975) - original title: El asesino de muñecas, is one of the all time most bizarre movies I've ever seen! It seems to have elements of the Italian Giallo genre but with a very Spanish twist (it was made during Franco's regime.) Basically it's a study in abnormal psychology.

I found it so over the top bizarre and strange that although I'm sure it was intended to be a serious horror film it at times is so outrageously bizarre that it is absurdly humorous. And I see that as a good thing! It's a very, very weird move that does not always go where you expect it to go and may shock some viewers. They could never get away with making this movie today! The 1970s were even more weird than the psychedelic late 1960s.

One of the themes of this movie is the odd "friendship" between the protagonist Paul (...you know...the guy who likes to dress up as a doll and works in a doll factory then steals the dolls to dissect and 'kill' them...) and a neighborhood boy of around 9 named Robert (played by Rafael 'Indio' González Jr.) Paul bonds with the chubby looking boy Robert who comes to the park daily with his Grandfather. Robert enjoys smashing dolls and setting things on fire. Paul connects with the bratty kid's anarchy and rage.

There seems to be a strange undercurrent of homoerotic lust in Paul for Robert (and Robert is blissfully unaware of anything...always so cheerful, naive and guileless.) But this is not your ordinary horror movie...don't expect a happy ending. In fact it left me wondering...whatever became of Robert? Strange, weird, bizzare, absurdly over the top, sometimes disturbing movie. Keep an open mind and just go with it. If you hate weird movies you won't like it. But I liked it because it is indeed so beyond weird that it is entertaining.

This is a very strange Spanish film that seems to have been equally inspired by the 1970's Italian gialli thrillers AND the earlier 60's British "psycho" films like "The Psychopath" or "Twisted Nerve" where handsome (and usually very effeminate) young men are driven to serial murder by their psychosexual neurosis. I actually like both of these "genres" a lot, but they don't necessarily mix very well (although they both do owe a significant debt to Hitchcock's original "Psycho").

The disturbed protagonist here is the sexually repressed son of a gardener who likes to play with--and mutilate--dolls he steals from a doll factory where he works. The lady of the house, a contessa (Helga Line), tries unsuccessfully to seduce him. He befriends a young boy, who he seems in constant danger of molesting and/or murdering. Meanwhile, he spies on couples having sex and subsequently murders the girls, turning them into more of his "dolls". Things finally come to a head though when he falls for the pretty daughter (Inma DeSantis) of the contessa.

The direction by Miguel "Necrophagus" Madrid is pretty incompetent and the camera-work is downright awful. This does not have the visual flair of your typical Italian gialli, but it is also way too overwrought and hysterical to succeed as a more mannered British "psycho" thriller. The lead has the right look, but his performance is often hilariously unsubtle. Helga Line meanwhile is largely wasted. Perhaps, the best reason to watch this is Inma DeSantis who, along with Sandra Mazurowsky, was one of young, ill-fated "lolita" actresses of 70's Spanish exploitation (both began working in films as teenagers and both died tragically young--Mazurowsky by her own hand and DeSantis in a car accident). DeSantis is very pretty and appealing, but doesn't show up unfortunately until at least halfway through the movie when it is way too late to salvage much. This movie is uniquely strange--if that can be considered a virtue--but there's not much else you can say about it.

Miguel Madrid's second film after "Necrophagus" is a psycho thriller with dolls,mannequins and giallo elements."Killing of the Dolls" is even more bizarre than his campy debut as it features some surreal hallucinations seen by the main character,who enjoys killing sexually active women.The film is more competent than horrible "Necrophagus" and it has enough creepy looking dolls and mannequins to satisfy me.The camera work is shoddy and the acting is over-the-top,but there are some bloody murders via knife,axe and scissors plus cheesy musical number.I truly adore mannequins,unfortunately they are used in horror movies very rarely.During production of our third horror short "Nightmares of Mutantoid" we used many charred,dismembered and bleeding mannequins."Killing of the Dolls" was finally released in Spain on DVD by Filmax.6 out of 10.